I became active in blood banking in 1965,
after donating a pint of blood. I contacted the Lorain County Blood
Bank, now LifeShare Community Blood Services, and inquired about running
a blood drive and with their support, began running blood drives at my
church. I coordinated blood drives every eight weeks and also continued
to donate myself on a regular basis.
Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, I
converted to platelet donations, and continued holding blood drives
every eight weeks.
In 1985, after talking with a lot of my
fellow donors, I felt I was not getting the full potential from them. I
decided to have a blood drive every Saturday and once every eight weeks
on a Monday night. This was very successful because my donors were able
to conveniently work this into their schedule. If they missed an eight
week cycle, they could show up the following week and not have to wait
eight weeks to donate.
I continued running about 56 drives a year
until I retired in 2000. My final year I was able to collect 2,069 units
of blood for LifeShare Community Blood Services.
Although I was no longer coordinating blood
drives, I continued donating platelets on a regular basis. In the fall
of 2007, while donating platelets I said, “I can do more than this.” I
then came up with the idea of donating platelets in every state,
becoming a spokesperson to raise awareness of the need for whole blood
and platelets. Hence the name “Platelets Across
America”.
